Nikko Hurtado & Sergio Sanchez Workshop at Black Anchor Academy

First off I have to say that we are overwhelmed with the amount of support we received to make this trip possible!

We needed $11,000CAD to make this trip happen and many of our loyal clients purchased tattoo time to help out. 😏 Some even encouraged their friends & family to get in on the action, 😉 NICE! We just want to say THANK YOU for the support! We hope what we have learned at the Academy will translate into some amazing tattoos and art for all of you as we continue to pursue our Niche Style that identifies us as Fawcett Tattoos! Our dream is to become Well Respected International Tattoo Artists who are Sponsored & Endorsed by The Tattoo Industry! This was the first step we needed to take in order to make some connections and network with like minded artists, who want to raise the whole community, so our Industry thrives for years to come. We made many new friends and connections and hope to make many more in the near future.

We had an great time during this amazing hands on art and tattoo workshop where we learned some new drawing and tattooing techniques.

The first day we spent learning all about the human form and how to properly "capture the information" to create a simple figurative sketch.

We used this knowledge to create more complex sketches with lighting and details.

Sergio helped explain how to break down the information then gave us 2 min. and 5 min. to draw up sketches. This helped us to better understand how to evaluate the information and capture the likeness of the model quickly. To be honest the first round was very difficult because we wanted to capture 100% of the details right away! Sergio helped us learn the skill of focusing in on 10% of the information at a time to capture the lines and shapes that make up the over all structure. He explained how it is easier to capture a little at a time to make the over all image come together much quicker. This skill will take much more practice to refine but it was an area we didn't even know we had a weakness in until he shed a light on it. Sergio also helped us define "Pits", "Shadows", "Core Lighting" , "Bounce Lighting" and "Fall Off" in our drawings to help get a better over all image.

We learned that when you time yourself you are forced to capture as much simple information as you can quickly so you can still fill in the rest of the information later as needed. Sergio also showed us many tricks and tips that are only handed down to students of colleges and universities. Some of the cool tricks we learned are how to sharpen a charcoal pencil with a razor blade and how to hold the pencil with an "underhand grip" to get smoother longer lines in our sketches with less effort.

Sergio is an amazing humble teacher who loves sharing his knowledge with those who are eager to receive it. He has taught at Colleges and his teaching skills are amazing.

We own some of the books that Sergio brought with him to the lesson to help explain a few theories. We honestly didn't understand the theories in the books we own until Sergio explained them in relation to tattooing. He simplified such complex subjects into easy to understand tattoo terms. He diced up the difficult topic of Figurative drawing down to tangible nibbles and they tasted SO GOOD!

We can honestly say that this was one of the coolest art lessons we have ever attended!

On day two we applied this knowledge to black and grey tattooing. It was a little challenging to try and figure out how to translate the information we learned on day

one to tattooing but with some guidance and encouragement from our instructors we

learned some new tattooing skills.

Both Nikko and Sergio were so helpful and willing to give us a hands on demonstration in areas we were struggling to figure out. ❤️ They both sat down at our stations and showed us exactly the movements they were doing with their hands so we could better understand what they were saying.

To get this level of instruction is a blessing! We are so grateful to have received the gift of better black and grey techniques from these Amazing Tattoo Masters!

We got so much out of this experience and we are so thankful for amazing tattooers like these guys who are willing to share their knowledge with us. We even got the Hollywood style treatment with a gift bag full of goodies. Each of our gift bags had a Black Anchor Academy T-shirt, a copy of Nikko Hurtado's Portrait Tattoo DVD, a 8oz. bottle of Anchored Stencil Solution, & 4oz. Jar of Vegan Blue.

We were so excited to wear our new shirts the next day and try out our new products. We truly enjoyed good food and fellowship with like minded people. It was a breath of fresh air and really put some wind in our sails to create more art.

We can't wait for the next Black Anchor Academy Workshop on Color which we have been invited to attend in a few months ❤️

The next lesson will be for our class only via personal invite so we are starting to think about the next Fundraising campaign coming Summer-Fall 2019! We believe that make Tattoo and Art Education part of our careers on a regular bases will help us achieve our artistic goal in the future.

To get on the waiting list for info on the next workshop and fundraising campaign please sign up to our Black Anchor Academy mail list which will pop up any minute!